Word
Count:999
Summary or description:Gojyo only
meant to fill the canteen.Honestly.

Disclaimer:Sha Gojyo, Cho Hakkai and
all associated characters from the Saiyuki universe are the property of
Minekura Kazuya and those to whom she has licensed her creations. No copyright
infringement is intended. The author is making no profit from this story.The monkeys are mine.

Warnings:Big monkey fangs.

Foundling

"Shit."

"Gojyo!"Hakkai's eyes flew wide with shock.

"Er,
sorry," Gojyo apologized."But it's not like it underst—"

Hakkai
looked at him sternly, then knelt."Don't be afraid," he crooned.

The baby
monkey was all eyes and ears and potbellied body.It screeched.

Gojyo
winced."Damn!"

Hakkai
glared at him again."Language!"He turned
back to the tiny creature."We
won't hurt—"

The tiny
monkey shivered and hid under the curtain of his hair, pressed warm against him
with its tail wrapped tightly around his neck and its tiny hands tangled in
crimson strands."Hey, take it
easy, junior!" Gojyo said, uncomfortably aware of how close its sharp little
teeth were to vulnerable (and damned good looking!) bits of his anatomy."Nobody's gonna hurt you."

The monkey
chirruped and held tighter.

~*~*~*~*~

By
dinnertime, Gojyo was resigned to being a surrogate moth— big brother.

"Get
rid of it."

Gojyo
rolled his eyes."And tell me how
the hell I'm supposed to do that, O great Sanzo-sama.The fucking thing's attached."

"It's
very young."Hakkai had been
sending Gojyo reproachful looks all evening.They were getting on Gojyo's nerves."It won't survive on its own."

"It's
not like the monkey can learn to swear," Gojyo muttered.It chattered enthusiastically and parted his
hair with tiny hands.

"Ha
ha ha!It's looking for fleas!Flea-kappa, monkey-kappa!"

"Shut
up, chimp.At least this monkey's
cute.Sorta."

"Hey!Whatcha gonna name it?"

"He's
not naming it anything.He's putting it
back where he got it."

"Sanzo,
I'm sure Gojyo will take good care of it."Hakkai's eyes promised that he'd make damned sure that Gojyo did
if Gojyo fell down on the job.

Tch.

"Then
leave the fucking kappa behind, too."

"Gojyo—"

"Saru,"
blurted Gojyo."Its fucking name
is Saru.I'm not leaving it behind to
die.Got a problem with that?" he
added, matching Sanzo glare for glare.

"Tch."

The
monkey scrambled off Goyjo's shoulder and chittered happily as it ate the sweet
bean bun he'd been saving for dessert.Just like it had eaten his curry and his rice and his apple.He sighed.

"Saru,
you eat as much as the saru," he muttered.

Goku
stopped inhaling food for a microsecond."Wait.Which one of us are
you talking about?" he asked suspiciously.

Thwap!

Gojyo
smiled.

~*~*~*~*~

When
Gojyo lay down in his bedroll, Saru snuggled into the hollow of Gojyo's
throat.

Damn,
it was tiny.Was this what Jien had
felt?When his dad brought Gojyo home,
had Jien felt bound to keep the tiny, stupidly trusting brat alive for as long
as possible, just in case it had a chance in hell of making it?

Fuck
it.Sanzo had his monkey; he could
hardly complain if Gojyo had one, too.

He
fell asleep to the surprisingly comforting sensation of tiny breaths and a
fluttering heart.

He
woke to a sudden weight on his chest and Hakkai's softly spoken, "Nobody
move."

Gojyo
opened his eyes.

A monkey with huge fucking teeth was perched
on his chest and snarling at him from a distance of maybe an inch.Saru was clinging to it and chittering
merrily away, the little bastard.Gojyo
swallowed.

"Er," Gojyo whispered, waiting for his
throat to get ripped out, "he's okay.Glad to be with his mama."

The mother monkey growled, then launched herself
backwards, her powerful legs knocking the wind out of Gojyo.He struggled for breath.

"Gojyo!"

Strong hands gathered him up; qi seeping into his
chest until he could take a shuddering breath."Hey," he said weakly, looking up to see Hakkai's worried face
staring down at him, "I'm fine."He coughed.

Hakkai's qi continued to warm him.By the time he got his breath back, the
colony of monkeys had disappeared.

"Tch.Since we're all awake, pack up.We're leaving."

Hakkai hovered while Gojyo stood."Everything's back to normal,"
Gojyo said, flashing him a grin.He
knelt to roll up his blankets and tried hard to ignore the empty feeling on his
shoulder that seemed to leak all the way into his chest.

~*~*~*~*~

Gojyo leaned against the rock and blew out a long
stream of smoke.The riverbank was
green and quiet, the setting sun dancing gold and red on the river's surface.

He really missed Saru, the little shit.Everything he loved always ended up running
away one way or another.Sometimes life
just sucked.

Soft footsteps approached."Are you okay?"

Hakkai sat next to Gojyo, their shoulders
touching.Gojyo shrugged and took a
drag."Yeah," he said,
exhaling smoke."You know, when
that mama monkey was glaring at me, she looked sorta like my mum.I'm glad she came after him."

"Gojyo."Hakkai laid his hand over Gojyo's.

Gojyo smiled at him and winked."Hey, it's cool.Besides, we already have a monkey of our own
to take care of, don't we?"

"I guess we do."Hakkai smiled back, then looked
thoughtful."When did I become a
part of your 'we'?"

Gojyo's heart stopped.Not Hakkai too."Aren't you?"

"I want to be.If you'll have me."

"Then you are," Gojyo said gruffly, his
heart beating again.He captured
Hakkai's hand, squeezing."Who
else would get me through this commonplace Hell?"

He finished the cigarette and ground it out in
grass as green as Hakkai's eyes.

Hakkai squeezed back.His hand was bigger than Saru's, but no less warm.His lips were warm, too, when they pressed
against Gojyo's mouth.